The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-11-09

Tune-How to Restore Harmony.
BROOKLYN. Nov. 6.-'The main feature
in the music of the Brooklyn tabernacle
is the congregational singing. Today,
after the opening song, in which all the
thousands participated, Professor Browne
gave on the organ Scherzo, opus 81, by
Mendelssohn. The Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage, ID. d., expounded chapter in
the first book Of Samuel where Saul,
possessed Of an evil spirit, threw a jave-
lin at David. who was playing ON the
harp before him, thus showing that the
evil spirit does not like sacred music
The subject of the sermon was Concord
and Discord, - and the text was from
stone thereof; when the morning stars
sang together:" DIR. Talmage said:
We have all seen the ceremony at the
laying Of the corner stone Of church,
asylum or Masonic temple. Into the
hollow of the stone were placed scrolls Of
history and important documents to be
suggestive if, 100 or 200 years after, the
building should be destroyed by fire or
torn down. We remember the silver
trowel or iron hammer that smote the
square piece of granite into sanctity. We
remember some venerable man who pre-
sided, welding the trowel or hammer.
We remember also the music as the choir
stood on the scattered stones and timber
Of the building about to be constructed.
The leaves of the note books fluttered in
the wind and were turned over with a
great rustling, and we remember how
the bass, baritone, tenor, Uontralto and
soprano voices commingied. They had,
for many days, been rehearsing the spe-
cial programme, that it might be worthy
Of the corner stone laying.
In my text the poet of UZ calls us to a
grander ceremony-the laying of the
foundation of this great temple Of a
world. The corner stone was a block of
light and the trowel was of celestial crys-
tai. All about and on the embankments
Of cloud stood the angelic choristers, I'M
rolling their hbrettos Of overture, and
other worlds clapped shining cymbals
while the ceremony went on, and God,
the architect, by stroke of light after
stroke Of light, dedicated this great ca
thedral of world, with mountains for
pillars, and sky for frescOed ceiling, and
Towering fields for floor and sunrise and
midnight aurora for upholstery. 'FWho
laid the corner stone thereof, when the
morning stars sang togetherr'
The fact is that the whole universe was
complete cadence, an unbroken dithy-
ranb, musical portfolio. The great
sheet of immensely had been spread out
and written on it were the stars, the
smaller Of them minims, the larger Of
them sustained notes. The meteors
marked the staccato passages; the whole
heavens a gamut, with all sounds, in
donations and modulations; the space be
tween the worlds musical interval,
trembling of stellar light quaver; the
thunder base clef; the wind among
trees treble clcf. That is the way
God made all things perfect harmony.
But one day harp string snapped in
the great orchestra. One day voice
sounded out Of tune. One day discord,
harsh and terrific, grated upon the glori-
Gus antiphone. II was sin that made the
dissonance, and that harsh discord has
been sounding through the centuries. All
the work of Christians, and philanthro-
pists, and reformers of all ages is to stoT
that discord, and get all things back into
the perfect harmony which was heard al
the laying of the corner stone, when the
morning stars sang together. Before
get through, if l am divinely helped,
will make it plain that sin is discord and
righteousness is harmony.
That things in general are out of tune
is AZ plain as to musicians ear is the
unhappy clash of clarionet and bassoor
In an orchestral rendering
The world health out of tune: Weak
lung and the atmosphere in collision, dis
ordered eye and MONDAY light in quarrel
rheumatic limb and damp weather in
struggle, neuralgias and pneumonias and
consumptions and epilepsies in hocks
swoop upon neighborhoods and cities.
Where you find one person with sound
throat and keen eyesight, and alert ear,
and easy respiration, and regular pulsa-
ton, and supple limb, and prime diges-
ton and steady nerves, you find hun
dred who have to be very careful because
this or that or the other physical func-
ton is disordered.
The human intellect out of tune: The
Judgment wrongly swerved or the mem
DRY leaky, or the will weak, or the tenn
per infammable and the well balanced
mind exceptional. Domestic life out OF
tune: Only here and there a conjuga
outbreak of incompatibility of temper
through the divorce courts, or a fila
outbreak out a fathers will about tbs
surrogate's court, or a case of wife beat
ing or husband poisoning through the
criminal courts, but thousands of fam
lilies with June outside and January
within.
Society out of tune: Labor and capital
their hands on each others throat. Spiri
of caste keeping those down in the socia
scale in a struggle to get up, and putting
those who are up in anxiety lest they
have to come down. No wonder the ole
pianoforte of society is all out of tune
when hypocrisy and lying, and subter
fuge, and double dealing, and syco
phancy, and charlatanism and reveng,
have for 5000 years been bangins
away Mt the keys and stamping tn,
pedals.
On all sides there is a perpetual ship
wreck of harmonies. Nations in discord
+ Without realizing it, so wrong is the feel
ing OF nation for nation that the symbol
chosen are fierce and destructive. In thi
country, where our skies are full o
robins and doves and morning larks, w,
have for our national symbol the fierc
and filthy eagle-as immoral bird as cal
be found in all the archaeological cata
logues In Great Britain, where the,
have lambs and fallow deer. their synbo
is the merciless lion. In Russia, wher
from between her frozen north an,
blooming south all kindly beasts dwell
they choose the growing bear: and il
the worlds heraldry "a favorite figure
the dragon. which is a winged serpent
= r..1 g.
the world of contention that we clint
out through the heavens and baptize one
of the other planets with the spirit of bat
tie and call il Mars, after the god of war
and we give to the eighth sign of the
zodiac the name of the scorpion, 3
creature which is chiefly celebrated foI
its deadly sting. But, after all, these
symbols are expressive of the way nation
feels toward nation. Discord wide as the
continent and bridging the seas. j sup
pose you have noticed how warmly in
love dry goods stores are with other dry
goods stores, and how highly grocerymen
think Of the sugars of the grocerymen on
the same block. And in what a eulogis-
tic way allopathic and homeopathic doc
tors speak of each other, and how minis
tiers will sometimes put ministers ON that
beautiful cooking instrument which the
English call o spit, an iron roller with
spikes on it, and turned by crank be-
fore hot fire, and then, if the minister
being roasted cries out against it. the men
who are turning him say: Hush,
brother! we are turning this spit for the
glory of God and the good of your soul,
and you must be quiet while we close the
services with:
"Biest be the tie that binds
Our hears in Christian love"
The earth is diametered and circum-
ferenced with discord, and the music that
was rendered at the laying of the world e
corner stone, when the morning stars sang
f1,<xokl,on- mot hoard .,x...r.